Distance of the Heart
by Fox Lily
Summary: Jean suffers a pretty painful breakup and his friends are determined to find him someone new. As a joke, Mikasa and Eren upload Jean's profile onto a dating website. Little do they know that a daring Armin is doing the same for a suffering Marco. Main JeanxMarco but with lots of other pairings.
1. Chapter 1

DISTANCE OF THE HEART

_For Lucy_

Chapter One – Denial is a funny thing

The red blocks of hell stared at him, as if daring him to do something, daring him to act. They flashed menacingly and he growled back at them. They continued to flash. On. Off. On. Off. With a strangled cry, he sat bolt upright and threw the damn thing across the room, chest heaving as it smashed into the wall, pieces flying from it instantly.

He ignored the banging from upstairs, Mr O'Cowell could get fucked anyway for all he cared, and slowly laid back down, one arm covering his face.

5AM. Five o' clock in the mother fucking morning. He growled again, although it was really more of a grumble because hell if he could make a decent growling noise. The banging slowly came to a stop and he heard footsteps stomping their way across the floor, loud muttering in their wake.

A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. Well, at least he had ruined someone else's night as well. _Correction, morning,_ his mind reminded him and his face set into a heavy scowl once more.

It had been months. Three long fucking months and yet he still couldn't sleep at night without him. He sighed deeply and rolled over, one arm underneath his pillow, the other coming up to muss at his two toned hair as if he could simply shake the thoughts from his head.

He smiled bitterly as he mused on this. Oh, how convenient that would be. To just forget. To forget the memories, the friendship, the love. Was it love? He sure thought so. It's just to bad that Bert didn't.

Jean felt his chest tighten as he thought of the name. _Bertholdt. _He had spent days, weeks, even _months_ in denial. Pretending that it wasn't attraction that it felt, slipping 'no homos' every time he so much as brushed against his friend. Bert caught on pretty quickly of course and took charge of the situation. Namely, attempting to suck out Jean's soul through his mouth.

Nevertheless, all of Jeans dreams had come true at once, he was the happiest man on earth, yadda yadda yadda. Now, not only was this Jean's first homosexual relationship, and man didn't he just _cringe_ when you used that word, it was his first real relationship ever.

He'd had a crush on his neighbor for just about forever but this feeling with Bert pretty much sucker-punched that baby into next week. Mikasa was a crush, Bert was _love_.

They spent pretty much every day together, Bert made him feel better abut his shitty job, his shitty apartment, his shitty landlord and in turn Jean helped Bert study, made sure he rested and told him he was awesome.

So, the two of them made a pretty great pair. Of course, Jean wouldn't be throwing alarm clocks at his bedroom wall at five in the morning if this was still going swimmingly.

It all started when one of Bert's pen pals suddenly announced that he was moving to their little town. In the beginning, Jean had been skeptical about all of the guys, and some girls, that Bert wrote to. However, it made Bert happy and he made some good friends in the process, so how could it hurt?

So one day, Jean and Bert are hanging out at Bert's, Jean reading some mind-numbing fact off of a flashcard and Bert getting flustering because he just can't darn remember it. All at once, there is a knock on the door and Bert, grateful for the distraction because Jean is really starting to piss him off, runs down to open it.

With a sigh, Jean follows, albeit moodily as he was so damn _bored_ of studying when there could be video games to play. As he reaches the bottom of the stairs, his eyes widen. For there, in the doorway, is his boyfriend and man he has never seen.

Now this in itself could be a pretty ordinary scenario, if the man at the door hadn't dropped his bags, buried his fingers in Bert's hair and kissed the living daylights out of him.

Jean spluttered as he took in what was going on in front of him. _It's okay_, his racing mind told him, _Bert will push him off any second now_.

But any second never came and Bert launched himself at the other man and proceeded to attempt to eat his face.

Jean stood and watched for a moment. His brain attempting to catch up with what had just transpired in front of him. He closed his eyes, feeling a sharp sting and shook his head sharply. He was not going to cry in front of these assholes.

Instead, he walked up to them, grabbed each of them by the shoulder and wrenched them apart. They looked surprised, as if they had forgotten that anybody was there. Jean turned to Bert first.

"You are an absolute arsehole."

There, short and sweet.

He then turned to the blonde man and smiled before punching him in the face. Ignoring Bert's sharp cry of horror, he pushed past the two of them and walked out of the front door.

The memory slowed faded away and Jean sighed again. That was three months ago and he still remembered it as if it were yesterday. He grumbled again and shut his eyes, finally drifting off into an uneasy sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Oh come _on_ Marco! Come out and socialise, you've been holed up in that tiny apartment of yours forever!"

Pouting at the 'tiny apartment' bit of Sasha's exuberant speech, Marco rolled over and sighed into the mouthpiece.

"Sash, you know I'm not feeling great at the moment. Besides, everyone knows what happened and if I go out, I will just feel like everyone is staring at me."

He could almost hear Sasha roll her eyes through the phone. She took a deep breath and Marco winced lightly, waiting patiently for the telling off that was about that ensue.

There was a small yelp and a new voice spoke.

"Marco, if you'd rather stay at home, don't let Sasha force you."

Marco smiled as he heard Sasha's outraged cries in the background. Oh Armin, dear sweet Armin, who would always be there for him. Why couldn't he have fallen in love with Armin instead?

"Thanks Armin, I really appreciate that. Maybe you guys can come round for a bit later? I just really don't feel up to leaving the apartment right now."

"That'd be great. We'll bring some beers around in a bit and chill out. That sound okay?"

Marco's smile grew. Armin was always so worried about everyone. He was so eager to make sure his friends were happy. It was cute, really.

"That's fine Armin, I'll see you later."

The two said their goodbyes, ignoring Sasha's excited shouts of 'HOUSE PARTY!'.

Marco rolled his eyes and dropped his phone softly on the bed next him.

"I can't believe I am going to let my house get invaded…"

Groaning, he rolled over and buried his face into his pillow. He really did need to see people though. Armin was right, bless him. It wasn't good to just hide from the world, no matter how much Marco thought it was.

He sat up and ran a hand through his disheveled hair, wincing at the slightly greasy feel.

"I think a shower is called for."

He stood up and stretched, casting a critical eye across his bedroom and shuddered.

"And possibly a deep clean…"

Sighing at what could have been an excellent day of moping and whining to himself, Marco reached for his bin and started clearing away the junk on the floor.

Half an hour of fast-paced cleaning later, he was done and he proudly surveyed his now clean room.

"Now I definitely need a shower."

He opened his bedroom door and walked into the hallway leading to the bathroom, kitchen and living room. Making his way down the hallway, he passed the living room and stopped dead.

Pizza boxes, beer cans, an overflowing ashtray (oh god, that was a bad week) and clothes were strewn everywhere. Marco thumped his head against to doorway, trying desperately not to just burst into tears there and then.

* * *

Two hours later and the damn place was sparkling. Marco almost threw himself into the shower and viciously scrubbed his hair.

_This is all their fault, _he thought gloomily. He sighed lightly and ceased the brutal hair-scrubbing, opting for a more gentle cleanliness.

After cleaning himself thoroughly, he leant his head against the shower wall and let the water pound onto his back.

He was glad that they were coming round, he really was but he just couldn't shake the feeling of heaviness in his chest. Like someone and sat on him and was refusing to move.

He had never known anyone like Reiner before. Sure, he was close to Armin and they got on fantastically but Reiner just seemed to know him better than anyone. He smiled bitterly and thumped his head lightly against the shower wall.

Marco had got to stop thinking about him. He was gone, he pissed off to a far off town to be with some guy that he 'feel in love with' through letters.

Marco snorted. _Honestly. _He'd been with Reiner for months, given him every single part of himself that was possible to give and yet he had fallen for his pen-pal?

He shook his head and turned off the water. He'd had enough time to mope, he was going to get out of this shower, get dressed and have a fun evening with his friends.

* * *

It had started with good intentions, really it had. However, as per usual, everything went pear-shaped when Sasha starting making the drinks.

"Sasha, what the hell is this?"

"Oh shut up and drink it."

This was a common theme of the night and consequently got them all shit-faced in record time. After which, they all thought it would be hilarious to set Marco up an account on the most cheesy dating website any of them had ever seen.

"findyoursoulmate, priceless!"

Marco rolled his eyes. Well, at least he thought he did, although it may have been more of a drunken cross-eyed look than the sarcastic eye roll that he was hoping for.

"Oooooh look! He's cute!"

Ergh, Krista was getting way to into this. All he wanted to do was to sleep. That floor looked pretty soft, maybe he could just…

"Marco! Wake the fuck up and look at this guy!"

He groaned loudly and clumsily pushed himself up, bemoaning the loss of his comfy floor. He glanced at the computer screen, squinting a little.

"Mmyeah, he's not half bad. Looks a bit angry though… Wait, is that his screen name?"

The others all broke out in fits of laughter.

"Is that why you picked him?"

More laughter and Sasha looked like she might actually cry at any moment. Armin, who was the most sober of the lot (as usual), decided to take control.

"Right! I've sent him a message."

Marco's jaw hit the floor.

"What?! I thought this was just a joke? WHY ARE YOU MESSAGING PEOPLE?!"

Krista patted him softly on the shoulder as he buried his face in his hands.

"I'm sure he's a lovely guy, Marco."

Marco sighed and stood up, albeit with a bit of a wobble.

"Right, I'm off to bed. Sleep wherever you want."

There was a chorus of whines and even in Marco's drunken state; he noticed that Armin had guilt written all over his face.

_Serves him damn right, they know I'm still not over Reiner._

He cringed slightly as he thought of the name and fell gracelessly into his bed. God, did he hope this guy wasn't a total creep.

_Freckleslover69, what kind of a name is that?_

* * *

Thanks so much for the follows and the review ^^ I'm quite enjoying writing this so let me know if it is okay!


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